To establish a communication session with a wireless communication device, a wireless communication network typically broadcasts a page for the wireless device on a paging channel of at least one wireless access node. The likelihood that the wireless device will receive the page is increased when multiple wireless access nodes broadcast the page. Thus, broadcasting the page from many access nodes provides the best chance that the wireless device will receive the page. Unfortunately, the technique of broadcasting the page from many access nodes often wastes network resources that are not even close to the wireless device.
Accordingly, modern wireless networks first attempt to page a wireless device on access nodes around an area that the wireless device was last located. To assist in the determination of which access nodes should broadcast the signal, the wireless device is configured to update its location with a wireless network so that the wireless network can identify access nodes around that location that would most likely succeed in paging the wireless device. The wireless network provides the wireless device with a distance from the device's current access node that the device may travel before needing to update the location again. The distance is commonly referred to as a route update radius and typically corresponds to a distance whereby the wireless device would move beyond the coverage area of access nodes currently designated to page the wireless device. Upon exceeding the radius, the wireless device updates its location to the wireless network and the wireless network determines a new set of access nodes that would most likely succeed in paging the wireless device.